road muse – an improvised trip across the US

The first time I saw Mendocino, California, I thought I’d stepped into a dream, some Brigadoon fantasy conjured up by a Hollywood producer.   Certainly no place like this on earth could exist so untouched and undiscovered, especially so close to such a wildly popular tourist destination as San Francisco?

But miraculously, it did, and still does.   Perhaps due to those narrow winding roads along the coast and through the redwoods, that keep all but the most devoted and intrepid travelers away?  (I drove those roads yesterday, coming down from Crescent City, and came very close to careening the car over a cliff on one of the hairpin turns….scaaaary, man!)

Today I woke up in a Mendocino cabin to the smoky-chlorine smell of wood stoves and hot tubs and it all felt so familiar.   Even though I’ve been here less than half a dozen times, there is something about this place that has always felt like returning to a long-ago home (my Scottish roots, perhaps?).

That dense damp fog followed by the sweetest sun and blue sky you could imagine.   Birds flying low across the headlands, swooping and chirping, making a fleeting black contrast to the bleached yellow and green and orange hues of the grasses.   Wildflowers everywhere, vines winding around the gray wood decks and fences and barns.  Anything grows here, it seems…

Anything but money, which you surely need if you are going to try to live (or even visit) Mendocino.   It may look rustic and cute and unpretentious, but the price tag is anything but.  The cheapest lodging for a night is still well over 100 bucks.  And a glass of good California wine will run you 9, 10, 11 bucks – and that’s not counting dinner and tips.

But Mendocino’s charm is undeniable, its one-of-a-kind magic irresistible to “addicts of the quaint”, of which I suppose I am one.  I keep trying not to like it – to find some fatal flaw (too many hippies!  too many wind socks!) but alas, its cuteness and charm keep winning me back.

And now, for our last day and night on the road, it feels good to be in such a peaceful, pretty place.   This will hold us over for a while, as we settle back into real life again. We needed a shot of beauty after all those ribbons of tar and concrete, all those strip malls and gas stations and swaths of man-made ugliness…(I feel a rant coming on)

America!   Your two faces I can’t seem to reconcile: the pristine, perfect beauty of Mendocino versus the shameless, almost hostile hideousness of so many of your towns and cities (and suburbs too).   It is it only a question of money and elitism that makes the difference?   Is the average American doomed to live in concrete bunkers and shop at vast, inhuman monster stores?   What’s left if so much of the landscape is paved over by mediocrity and greed?   Is it really just because the money isn’t there, or is it just that as a people we are not strict enough with our government, with our businesses, and with our priorities?   Are we just not paying attention?   It’s not that I want every place to look like or be like Mendocino – far from it.   But can’t we just make our surroundings, aesthetically, a little nicer?

(Rant over.  Time to get in the hot tub.)